1. Technical Field
The present invention is related to a power shutdown apparatus for preventing overheating of a hot beverage machine, which mainly provides a floating pipe mounted inside a tubular section predefined in a bottom portion of the water tank of the hot beverage machine and a sensor attached to the bottom of the water tank adjacent to one side of the sinking portion of the floating pipe, and wherein the floating pipe inside the tubular section sinks correspondingly with a low water level dropped by the water in the water tank to drive a magnet inside the floating pipe to activate the sensor provided on one side of said water tank such that power of said heating device of the water tank is shut down to prevent overheating of the hot beverage machine.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, there are various types of devices designed to prevent overheating of hot beverage machines, among which, a conventional type is to attach a overheating power shutdown apparatus at the heating area of the hot beverage machine. However, since the heating device of the hot beverage machine generates a tremendous amount of steam when it overheats, the coffee particles (powder) stored inside the automatic coffee machine would be soaked wet due to the steam generated, causing unfavorable odor at the following process of brewing of the coffee.
In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,834 discloses a overheating power shutdown device for a hot beverage machine in the same field. The overheating power shutdown device comprises a floating member 1 provided on one side of the water tank 4, and one end of the floating member 1 is attached to tubular section 8 at the bottom thereof. The other end of the tubular section 8 is attached to the bottom of the water tank 4 correspondingly. Also, a controlling arm 13 penetrates the tubular section 8, and wherein a lower end 14 of the controlling arm abuts a switch 17 at the lower end of the water tank 4 and corresponds to an external button 18; therefore, as the water tank 4 is at a low water level, the floating member 1 is biased to cause the controlling arm 14 penetrating therethrough to disengage from the switch 17 and the external button 18 such that it is at a power shutdown state without further heating.
Nevertheless, the overall structural components involved in such known power shutdown device for controlling the heating of the water tank are complex while occupying a great amount of space for such assembly, which is also inconvenient to the maintenance and repair of the machine.